I am a teacher-seeker, political geographer, and professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced. My work bridges many worlds: academia and activism, meditation and dance, body and spirit. I study, write, and teach about global capitalism, body politics, ecologies, and social mobilization, while also curating liberatory spaces where communities can resist destruction and affirm life.

I have been rooted in Vipassana meditation practice for more than 25 years, which continues to shape my path with depth and humility. As a queer brown woman, I carry both the lived experience of violent systems and the healing that emerges through mind-body practice. Meditation and conscious dance have brought me profound connection, and I am passionate about making these critical life-supports accessible and relevant to broader communities.

I have trained with The 360 Emergence and Open Floor schools of conscious dance, and in 2024 I founded the Freedom Dance Collective, a BIPOC-centered collaborative that holds regular community dances in Oakland. Through soundscapes, movement, and inclusive gatherings, I seek to create sanctuaries that center People of the Global Majority and invite people of all ages and abilities to explore new depths of embodiment.

In my teaching, I integrate social justice analysis with embodied practice as an alternative to alienating and oppressive paradigms of higher education. Each classroom, workshop, or dance floor I hold is a space for reflection, expression, and the reimagining of liberatory ways of being.